Apollonius of Rhodes

Abstract

Although the Argonautica is an epic, like the Iliad and the Odyssey , its treatment of time is quite different. The narrator of the Argonautica does not choose to begin in medias res but chronologically recounts the story of the journey from beginning to end, while at the same time referring to events external to the story and heterodiegetic facts on a much larger scale than the Homeric epics do. Instead of indulging in many scenes, and allowing his characters to speak, the narrator includes many digressions and descriptions, which make for somewhat fragmentary narrative and draws attention to the process of narrating, rather than making the narrator ‘disappear’. Collecting and combining the manifold historical, ethnographical and literary sources that refer to events somehow related to the Argo’s journey, Apollonius turns this event into a pivotal point in Greek history. Keywords: Apollonius; Iliad ; Odyssey ; Rhodes